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Flambéed Asian pears with orange

A delicious yet simple dessert, this is ready in just 25 minutes. Flaming the brandy burns off the alcohol, leaving a wonderful flavour which perfectly complements the oranges and pears. Even after cooking, Asian pears retain their crunchy texture, making a pleasant change from the more common dessert pears.

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Ingredients
Serves: 6

2 Asian pears

juice of ½ lemon

3 oranges

30 g (1 oz) butter

3 tbsp soft brown sugar

3 tbsp brandy

3 tbsp coarsely chopped pistachios

sprigs of fresh lemon balm to decorate

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MethodPrep:15min › Cook:10min › Ready in:25min

Peel, quarter and core the Asian pears. Cut them into slices and sprinkle with the lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown.

Peel the oranges, removing all the white pith. Cut them across into neat slices.

Melt the butter in a frying pan. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the pear slices and cook gently for about 3 minutes on each side or until they are just tender but still quite firm. Add the orange slices for the last minute of cooking, turning them to coat well with the juices in the pan.

Using a draining spoon, remove the pears and oranges to a shallow serving dish and keep warm. Boil the juices remaining in the pan to reduce a little, then pour over the fruit. Pour the brandy into the frying pan, heat it and set alight. Pour over the fruit.

Serve on warmed plates, sprinkled with the pistachios and decorated with lemon balm.

Some more ideas

Use sliced dessert pears instead of Asian pears. They will need only about 2 minutes cooking on each side to make them tender. * Use Poire William liqueur or Cointreau instead of brandy. * Replace the pears with apples, cut in rings. Cox's are particularly good prepared this way. Flambé with Calvados and sprinkle with chopped toasted hazelnuts.

Plus points

Oranges are justly famous for their vitamin C content (54 mg per 100 g/3½ oz). This is one of the ‘water-soluble’ vitamins, which cannot be stored by the body, so it is essential that fruit and vegetables containing vitamin C are eaten every day. As scientists have increasingly recognised, this vitamin helps to prevent a number of degenerative diseases such as heart disease and cancer, through its powerful antioxidant activity.